If you learned that the god of [insert religion] is real, would all bets be off?

[Sicnoo0]

Some of my fellow atheists have told me that if they learned that god is real, they would not assume anything about the god's capabilities or limitations. I find this to be really strange.

Personally, if I found out god was real, I would assume a lot of things about his limitations:

• I'd assume he can't create a married bachelor.
  

• I'd assume he can't make the square root of two rational.
  

• I'd assume he can't cause there to be only finitely many prime numbers.
  

• I'd assume he can't cause a polygon with three sides to have four sides.
  

• I'd assume he can't create a platonic solid that humans haven't already thought of. It has been proven that there can't be any more.
  

So what about you? Would all bets be off? 

Would you cease to believe in logic, questioning everything you thought you knew?

A fellow atheist told me that if god exists then god definitely created mathematics and logic.

Personally, I think think all logical and mathematical truths have always been true and always will be true, entirely independent of any hypothetical god. 

Sure, there was a time when we didn't know that there are infinitely many prime numbers. That doesn't mean it wasn't true long, long before anyone found out about it. 

That said, if god were real, I'd be willing to believe god created the laws of physics for our universe, but I wouldn't be entirely sure. I can't just go by what scriptures claim about god. But is god responsible for logical and mathematical truths being true... no, definitely not.

In fact, god would probably know that he has no control over what's logically or mathematically true, so he wouldn't even bother saying "let there be only five platonic solids"... because there would already be only five platonic solids, by default. No need for god.

If time travel were real and you could go back in time to the age of the dinosaurs, the fact that there are infinitely many prime numbers would still be true.

If multiple universes exist and you could teleport to another universe, the fact that the square root of two is irrational would still be true in the other universe.

I have nothing to back up these assertions, however. I'm just stating what I believe to be true.

In closing, if I were to wake up tomorrow and have god's existence shown to me beyond any reasonable doubt, I would still assume that no god can create a married bachelor.

That being said, I'd be incredibly scared if this god turned out to be the god of the bible or the quran. Those gods sound very tyrannical; I'd be scared shitless. But at least I'd still be confident that they can't send a married bachelor to kill me.

[arewethereyet]

Some of my fellow atheists have told me that if they learned that god is real, they would not assume anything about the god's capabilities or limitations. I find this to be really strange.

Personally, if I found out god was real, I would assume a lot of things about his limitations:

• I'd assume he can't create a married bachelor.
  

• I'd assume he can't make the square root of two rational.
  

• I'd assume he can't cause there to be only finitely many prime numbers.
  

• I'd assume he can't cause a polygon with three sides to have four sides.
  

• I'd assume he can't create a platonic solid that humans haven't already thought of. It has been proven that there can't be any more.
  

So what about you? Would all bets be off? 

Would you cease to believe in logic, questioning everything you thought you knew?

A fellow atheist told me that if god exists then god definitely created mathematics and logic.

Personally, I think think all logical and mathematical truths have always been true and always will be true, entirely independent of any hypothetical god. 

Sure, there was a time when we didn't know that there are infinitely many prime numbers. That doesn't mean it wasn't true long, long before anyone found out about it. 

If time travel were real and you could go back in time to the age of the dinosaurs, the fact that there are infinitely many prime numbers would still be true.

If multiple universes exists and you could teleport to another universe, the fact that the square root of two is irrational would still be true in the other universe.

I have nothing to back up these assertions, however. I'm just stating what I believe to be true.

In closing, if I were to wake up tomorrow and have god's existence shown to me beyond any reasonable doubt, I would still assume that no god can create an unmarried bachelor.

That being said, I'd be incredibly scared if this god turned out to be the god of the bible or the quran. Those gods sound very tyrannical; I'd be scared shitless. But at least I'd still be confident that they can't send a married bachelor to kill me.

Bold mine - try again.

[brewer]

Some of my fellow atheists have told me that if they learned that god is real, they would not assume anything about the god's capabilities or limitations. I find this to be really strange.

Personally, if I found out god was real, I would assume a lot of things about his limitations:

• I'd assume he can't create a married bachelor.
  

• I'd assume he can't make the square root of two rational.
  

• I'd assume he can't cause there to be only finitely many prime numbers.
  

• I'd assume he can't cause a polygon with three sides to have four sides.
  

• I'd assume he can't create a platonic solid that humans haven't already thought of. It has been proven that there can't be any more.
  

So what about you? Would all bets be off? 

Would you cease to believe in logic, questioning everything you thought you knew?

A fellow atheist told me that if god exists then god definitely created mathematics and logic.

Personally, I think think all logical and mathematical truths have always been true and always will be true, entirely independent of any hypothetical god. 

Sure, there was a time when we didn't know that there are infinitely many prime numbers. That doesn't mean it wasn't true long, long before anyone found out about it. 

That said, if god were real, I'd be willing to believe god created the laws of physics for our universe, but I wouldn't be entirely sure. I can't just go by what scriptures claim about god. But is god responsible for logical and mathematical truths being true... no, definitely not.

If time travel were real and you could go back in time to the age of the dinosaurs, the fact that there are infinitely many prime numbers would still be true.

If multiple universes exists and you could teleport to another universe, the fact that the square root of two is irrational would still be true in the other universe.

I have nothing to back up these assertions, however. I'm just stating what I believe to be true.

In closing, if I were to wake up tomorrow and have god's existence shown to me beyond any reasonable doubt, I would still assume that no god can create an unmarried bachelor.

That being said, I'd be incredibly scared if this god turned out to be the god of the bible or the quran. Those gods sound very tyrannical; I'd be scared shitless. But at least I'd still be confident that they can't send a married bachelor to kill me.

If an actual biblical god came into existence (or entered this reality) your list would be at the bottom of my concerns.

[no one]

I'd be too busy have the sexins with Wonder Woman to worry about anything.

[Sicnoo0]

Some of my fellow atheists have told me that if they learned that god is real, they would not assume anything about the god's capabilities or limitations. I find this to be really strange.

Personally, if I found out god was real, I would assume a lot of things about his limitations:

• I'd assume he can't create a married bachelor.
  

• I'd assume he can't make the square root of two rational.
  

• I'd assume he can't cause there to be only finitely many prime numbers.
  

• I'd assume he can't cause a polygon with three sides to have four sides.
  

• I'd assume he can't create a platonic solid that humans haven't already thought of. It has been proven that there can't be any more.
  

So what about you? Would all bets be off? 

Would you cease to believe in logic, questioning everything you thought you knew?

A fellow atheist told me that if god exists then god definitely created mathematics and logic.

Personally, I think think all logical and mathematical truths have always been true and always will be true, entirely independent of any hypothetical god. 

Sure, there was a time when we didn't know that there are infinitely many prime numbers. That doesn't mean it wasn't true long, long before anyone found out about it. 

If time travel were real and you could go back in time to the age of the dinosaurs, the fact that there are infinitely many prime numbers would still be true.

If multiple universes exists and you could teleport to another universe, the fact that the square root of two is irrational would still be true in the other universe.

I have nothing to back up these assertions, however. I'm just stating what I believe to be true.

In closing, if I were to wake up tomorrow and have god's existence shown to me beyond any reasonable doubt, I would still assume that no god can create an unmarried bachelor.

That being said, I'd be incredibly scared if this god turned out to be the god of the bible or the quran. Those gods sound very tyrannical; I'd be scared shitless. But at least I'd still be confident that they can't send a married bachelor to kill me.

Bold mine - try again.

I fixed it. Thanks for pointing out the mistake

[Sicnoo0]

tangentially, can the belief that married bachelors cannot exist be considered dogmatic?

I often see theists saying "well your belief in logic and reason is just as dogmatic as my belief in god"

[arewethereyet]

Read your first bullet point.
Read what I bolded.
See the difference.

hint * bachelor indicates unmarried

[Silver]

If god was truly omnipotent, he could alter how we perceive reality. Thus, he would decree it, and we would all suddenly understand and know that a married bachelor is all the rage. Of course, most theists also believe in a little something called free will, whereby god cannot intervene in such a way.

[Sicnoo0]

If god was truly omnipotent, he could alter how we perceive reality. Thus, he would decree it, and we would all suddenly understand and know that a married bachelor is all the rage. Of course, most theists also believe in a little something called free will, whereby god cannot intervene in such a way.

You could perceive that the square root of two is rational, but that would just be god lying to you. I'm concerned with actual truth, not perceptions of what's true.

If god were to be audited by his superiors (this is a joke, by the way), he would have to admit that the square root of two is irrational and he was merely being deceptive.

My question is targeted at my fellow atheists, and concerned with how atheists envision a hypothetical god to be.
I couldn't care less how theists imagine their god to be, because many of their ideas about their hypothetical god are obviously wrong.

My issue is I don't think a truly omnipotent god can exist.
So if I woke up to learn that god is real, I'd be very confident that he is not fully, truly omnipotent. I'd still cling to my sense of what's logically possible or impossible.

[Belacqua]

 if I woke up to learn that god is real, I'd be very confident that he is not fully, truly omnipotent. I'd still cling to my sense of what's logically possible or impossible.

As you know, I'm sure, there are a lot of different versions of God, even among Christians. Some of them make more sense than others. 

Generally the serious theologians don't hold that "omnipotent" means "can do anything." So Thomas Aquinas, for example, is clear that God couldn't create a 4-sided triangle. 

In this tradition, "omnipotent" has to do with potentialities and actualities. Good old Aristotelian stuff. God is said to be full actualization with no potentiality, but such a thingy is said to be necessary for any potentiality in the world to be actualized. So "omnipotent" in that case means "the source and actualizer of all potential." 

I'm not arguing this is something you should believe -- only that this is a description of God which doesn't include logical paradoxes.